In this PR NEWS exclusive, William Arruda, president of Reach Communications Consultancy looks at one of today's hottest branding topics: executive brands. In a time when trust
in corporate America has been dramatically eroded, trusted executive brands can be the key to maintaining stakeholder trust in your corporate brand.
Since pre-industrial times, branding has been used to develop strong, enduring relationships with customers. Today, albeit on a much larger, more global scale, branding
continues to provide those same benefits. But branding is not just for companies or products any more. In the new millennium, everything is a brand. London is the world's hippest
city. Route 128 in Boston is "America's Technology Highway." "Operation Enduring Freedom" is a branded military operation. And Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Jack Welsh are some
of the most important brands in the business world.
In today's climate, it's becoming essential for senior executives to build and communicate their personal brands to expand both individual and corporate success.
What It Is and What It's Not
Just as with corporate brands, an executive's brand is his/her promise of value. It separates executives from their peers and allows them to expand their personal success while
building greater success for their organizations. Executive branding is not about building a special image for the outside world; it is about understanding an executive's unique
combination of rational and emotional attributes -- his/her strengths, skills, values and passions -- and using these attributes to stand out.
PR professionals are taking on a more proactive role in nurturing corporate brands. And they can be more successful in building a corporate brand communications strategy if
they include senior executives in the mix. It goes way beyond mentioning executives in press releases, quoting them in corporate communications, announcing their promotions and
having them appear at press briefings. It means having a thorough understanding of their brands - knowing what differentiates them and understanding how to use that to build a
richer landscape for communicating about the corporation.
IT Companies Lead the Revolution
Although this executive branding trend is visible in all industries, it is most apparent in the IT industry.
According to the Ad WEEK CEO Image report, "CEOs are more critical in tech markets than in most other industries. They're a vital part of communications to opinion leaders and
key decision makers." And IT CEOs and other executives have taken on almost celebrity status. Look at Carly Fiorina, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Lou Gerstner and Bill Gates. These
executive brands are so closely associated with their corporate brands that they almost become one in the same. Nancy Merz, an IT market researcher and president of Knight Market
Research in Boston says, "In every IT focus group I have conducted, when asked to describe the Microsoft brand, the first two words out of the respondents' mouths are Bill and
Gates." She adds, "This is even after Steve Balmer took on a more active role in the company."
ABCs of Brand Building
Look to the same systems you use for evaluating and nurturing your corporate brand in creating an accurate and relevant executive brand.
The first and most important step is unearthing the true brand. This includes using coaching skills to work with the executive to understand his or her true promise of value.
From this, you can define personal brand positioning and distill key differentiators into a one-page brand profile.
The second step is development of an executive communications plan within the context of the corporate communications plan. This means weaving the executive's brand into the
corporate communications plan and vice versa.
Lastly, you must work with the executive to manage his/her brand environment. This means ensuring that every aspect of what surrounds the executive is on-brand. This includes
image management, building brand tools, providing required training - like communications skills training or media training - and developing a plan to diminish any negative brand
attributes.
Building executive brands opens up new avenues of communications and ways of building relationships between a company and its various stakeholders. The successful corporation
of the future will take the lead in corporate branding and will understand executives' roles in supporting their corporate brands.
How to Meld Corporate & Executive Brands
When working with an IT company that wanted to reinforce it's brand value around caring for customers, we were able to make significant progress by including the brand values
of one of the company's senior executives.
Her personal brand is all about building relationships and consistently communicating her 'human approach to business.' She created chug and hug events - regular Friday
afternoon get-togethers for all team members. She flew around the world to meet all of her team members face to face while still maintaining a full workload. And she started
regular Webcasts and tele-meetings with all of her external colleagues and partners so that they could provide feedback on her team's accomplishments.
By profiling her genuine concern for her employees and colleagues and highlighting some of the innovative programs that she implemented, we were able to link the brand values
of the executive with the brand attributes of the company.
William Arruda has worked with some of the world's most recognized brands, including KPMG, Lotus, IBM and Primark Corporation. He is the founder and president of Reach, a
branding consultancy for individuals and organizations. Reach partners with communications agencies to support their efforts in building executive brands. He is the author of the
upcoming book Stand Out - Four Steps to Successful Personal Branding. Arruda can be reached at [email protected] or by
visiting http://www.reachcc.com.